Tagged: brewers

The squeeze of the week has to be Jeff Bianchi’s safety “attempt” with Jean Segura on third against the Rangers. The play goes in the scoresheet as a steal of home for Segura, but that doesn’t tell half the story. Bianchi treated the play like a safety squeeze, pulling the bat back on a pitch high and outside. Segura played it very aggressively (I wonder if he thought it was a suicide), getting caught way down the third base line. Thanks to some nifty moves and the Rangers misexecuting the rundown, the Brewers score anyway.

This doesn’t even qualify as Segura’s most interesting baserunning of the season, as he “stole first” earlier this year.

It’s almost like Brewers manager Ron Roenicke is keeping track too, because only one week after being deposed from the top of the squeeze standings, Milwaukee pulls a safety and a suicide to move back on top of the suicidal tendencies.

The only successful suicide squeeze this year was on April 13 when Marwin Gonzalez pulled the rare bases-loaded squeeze for the Astros against the Angels. Since then, the Orioles, Braves (twice!), Brewers, Angels, and Cardinals have all been burned on the suicide. Today Atlanta and St. Louis both plated insurance runs with beautifully executed plays.

An eerily similar situation happened on April 14. Aoki came to the plate against Choate in a tie game in the top of the ninth with runners at the corners. That time, Aoki tried twice to drop a bunt down but popped it up. He gets his revenge here, with some serious help from Bianchi’s great slide.

Also note that the Brewers reclaimed their place at the top of Suicidal Tendencies with this play.